Math: EAGER: Researching the HyFlex+ Instructional Model of Blended Learning

随着美国中学后入学人数的持续增加，学院和大学面临着为多样化的学生群体提供21世纪课程选择的压力，这些学生包括负责照看孩子、兄弟姐妹或父母的学生、学生运动员、在特定天气条件下面临危险通勤或其他流动性挑战的学生，以及生病的学生。旧金山州立大学的布莱恩·比蒂博士首先开发了一种很有前途的模型，名为HyFlex。HyFlex模式的主要特点是在单一课程中结合在线和面对面的组件(“混合”)，并允许学生选择他们上课的时间和方式(“灵活”)。这个项目将在密歇根大学的一门大型统计学入门课程中设计、开发和研究HyFlex模型的实施。HyFlex统计学入门课程将通过整合反向渠道交流系统--基于网络的聊天室或移动聊天室，如Twitter和其他社交媒体，为学生提供面对面或同步在线上课的同等条件。在HyFlex模型中，反向通道将由研究生监控，以便在课堂上促进学生和教师之间的实时对话。学生、教师和机构都对资源的高效利用感兴趣。尽管HyFlex模式已经存在了近十年，但关于这种模式在高等教育中对学生学习的有效性的研究相对较少。因此，这一拟议研究项目的核心将是一项旨在回答紧迫问题的混合方法(定量和定性数据收集)研究，这些问题包括：在学生和机构的统计入门课程中使用HyFlex模型的好处和挑战是什么？HyFlex教学模式在讲师和研究生助教时间上的成本是多少？在满足学生和学校的需求方面，HyFlex模式的哪些方面决定了它的成败？为什么学生选择他们所采用的出勤模式？这一选择是一致的，还是各不相同？对于两种出勤模式的学生来说，反向渠道是否同样有效？怎么做，为什么，为什么不呢？该模式对哪些认知和非认知学生的结果有影响？

As postsecondary enrollments in the United States continue to increase, there is pressure for colleges and universities to provide 21st Century delivery options for courses to accommodate access for a diverse student population, including students who have caregiver responsibilities for children, siblings, or parents; student athletes; students who face commutes that can be dangerous under certain weather conditions or other mobility challenges; and students who become ill. One promising model, first developed by Dr. Brian Beatty at San Francisco State University, is called HyFlex. The primary feature of the HyFlex model is to combine online and face-to-face components ("hybrid") in a single course and allow students to choose when and how they attend class ("flexible"). This project will design, develop, and research the implementation of a HyFlex model in a large introductory statistics course at the University of Michigan. The HyFlex+ introductory statistics course will provide equivalency for students attending class face-to-face or synchronously online by incorporating a backchannel communication system -- a web-based or mobile chat room, like twitter and other social media. In the HyFlex+ model, the backchannel will be monitored by graduate students in order to facilitate real-time conversation among students and the faculty instructor during a class session.Students, faculty, and institutions are interested in efficient and effective use of resources. Although the HyFlex model has existed for nearly a decade, relatively little research exists about the effectiveness of this model for student learning within higher education. Thus, the core of this proposed research project will be a mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative data collection) study designed to answer pressing questions, including: What are the benefits and challenges of the use of the HyFlex+ model in introductory statistics courses for students and for the institution? What are the costs of the HyFlex+ instructional model on the instructor's and graduate teaching assistants' time? What aspects of the HyFlex+ model contribute to its success or failure in meeting the needs of students and the institution? Why do students choose the attendance mode they do? Is this choice consistent, or does it vary? Is the backchannel equally effective for students in both attendance modes? How and why or why not? What cognitive and non-cognitive student outcomes are affected by the model and how?